Art Original

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

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The story is framed as a series of letters from a prosperous young Yorkshire farmer, Gilbert Markham, to his friend, detailing the dramatic arrival of a mysterious, reclusive young widow who calls herself Helen Graham. She moves into the decaying, semi-abandoned Elizabethan mansion Wildfell Hall with her young son, Arthur, attempting to earn a living by selling her oil paintings.

Because she maintains strict privacy, the local gossips quickly turn against her. Gilbert, initially infatuated, becomes jealous and aggressive when he misunderstands her interactions with another man, even striking a rival. When Helen realizes what is happening, she hands Gilbert her private diary to explain the truth.

The diary reveals her harrowing past: Helen had married Arthur Huntingdon, a charming, charismatic, and deeply dissolute aristocrat. Believing she could reform him through love, she soon discovered a nightmare of emotional abuse, infidelity, and domestic tyranny. When Huntingdon begins trying to corrupt their young son by introducing him to vice and alcohol, Helen makes the ultimate rebellious choice for a woman in 1840s England—she steals her son away in secret and goes into hiding to protect him, risking total social ruin and the loss of all legal rights to her child.

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Availability

Detail Information

Series Title

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Call Number

4.823.0294.B.U

Publisher

London : Wordsworth Classics., 2001

Collation

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Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

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Classification

4.823.0294.B.U

Content Type

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Media Type

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Carrier Type

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Edition

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Subject(s)

English Fiction

Specific Detail Info

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Statement of Responsibility

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